Michigan

MSU students walk past a sign at the campus' main library calling for an end to tuition increases. A Detroit TV station report detailed thousands of dollars worth of expenses to the university on account of trustees.
(Brandon Howell | MLive.com)

EAST LANSING -- Michigan State University Trustee Mitch Lyons said a Detroit TV station's weekend report on expenses some of his board colleagues have written off on the school raised legitimate concerns.

WXYZ reported MSU's trustees have cost the university more than $92,000 over the past year in tickets for Spartan athletic events and shows at the Wharton Center.

The TV station also reported Trustee Faylene Owen wrote off her 10-day trip to Germany when MSU played UConn at Ramstein Air Base in 2012. The expenses, which also covered Owen's husband, totaled more than $26,000.

The trip came at a time when the cost of an undergraduate credit hour grew more than 24 percent since 2010--although trustees' expenses are not funded through tuition or tax dollars.

"It certainly doesn't paint a good picture of the university," said Lyons, a financial adviser. "Now having said that, I'm not going to paint with a broad brushstroke and say that trustees' travel and appearances aren't beneficial to the university on a lot of levels.

"Certainly, the dollars that are mentioned in the story are of concern to me."

MSU spokesperson Kent Cassella pointed out that none of the trustees' expenses highlighted by WXYZ violated university policy. Trustees' expenses are guided by the board-approved manual of business procedures, Cassella said.

Funds for trustees' expenses come from two sources: interest from investment of auxiliary revenue, such as parking and licensing merchandise; and interest from investment of patent and intellectual property revenue.

"The accounts do not include any funds from the state or federal government or from students," Cassella said.

MSU trustees serve without being paid, as well, Cassella added.

"As a global research university with an institutional budget of nearly $2 billion, there is an expectation that as part of their duties trustees travel domestically and internationally to check on university operations, meet with alumni and donors and conduct university business," Cassella said.

Lyons, a Republican from Rockford, said he, too, has partaken in privileges afforded to trustees since his tenure on the board began in 2011. He said he's gone to the Big Ten football championship game in Indianapolis, the Big Ten basketball tournament, MSU's 2011 basketball game versus North Carolina on an aircraft carrier and other events.

But Lyons, who starred as a tight end at MSU from 1988 to 1992, said he's never gone abroad and passed the bill on to MSU, nor would he.

"Some of those expenses look a little excessive," he said. "It certainly is worth a review."

But Lyons added that trustees' presences at university, athletic and other functions is important and worthy of some expense.

"In terms of athletic events and whatnot, whether it's the Big Ten tournament or the Big Ten championship game, there's typically donor dinners and events," Lyons said. "On that end, it's typically couples. I think having my wife there brings a lot of value in terms of engaging donors. I think there is value in building those relations.

"There's value to the university, if the trustee can bring measurable value to what it is we're trying to accomplish in that region," he added. "I think it could warrant spending...but I certainly am trying to be cognizant of meals and transportation and whatnot that it takes to get to university events."

Lyons said he expects the WXYZ story and the larger issue of MSU trustees' expense privileges to come up at the board's next meeting on Dec. 13. And if those matters don't arise, he said he will bring them up himself.

"I think it's certainly worthy of a review," Lyons said. "It unfortunately paints a poor picture of the university, and I'm sure it'll be up for discussion."